'M' women's golf stumbles amongst competitive field

The Michigan women's golf team got a preview of the Big Ten Tournament course yesterday at the Lady Northern Invitational in Glencoe, Illinois. Unfortunately for the Wolverines, the results didn't indicate that the team is close to contending for the conference title just yet.

“It's good to see the course,” Michigan coach Cheryl Stacy said in an interview with the Daily last week. “It works as an extra practice session for us. Each week, we are trying to gain more confidence leading up to that event.”

Ten Big Ten schools were represented, in addition to visitors from Iowa State and Texas Tech.

Purdue walloped the competition, finishing with a comfortable 17-stroke victory over second-place Northwestern. The Boilermakers are expected to contend for Big Ten and national titles this season.

Two Wolverines achieved scores of par or lower in the second round — two of the only bright spots that can be taken away from the disappointing last place finish.

Senior Min Yean Tan finished 13th on the individual leaderboard at Lake Shore Country Club, saving par for a combined 220 strokes over three rounds. The best individual round any Michigan golfer posted was junior Meagan Bauer's one-under-par 71 in the second round.

Michigan will wrap up the fall season with a trip to Austin, Texas next week for the Challenge at Onion Creek. The course, renowned as the host of the first ever PGA Senior Tour event is also regarded as treacherous — several of the pins are guarded tightly by the water that's the course's namesake. The event also always boasts an intimidating field — the Wolverines finished 15th out of 21 schools last year at the tournament.

Salvaging a successful season is not entirely out of the question; however, after the first four events of the 2010 campaign, all signs point to a rough finish for the inexperienced Wolverines, competing amongst an especially talented Big Ten conference.